Earmarks Don’t Add to the National Deficit, Not One Dime

Ask Billy Long, Republican candidate for Congress in Missouri’s Seventh Congressional District, how much the process of earmarking increased the federal budget last year. Chances are he probably couldn’t give you an exact figure. The answer is an easy answer though, and it’s one that if people looked deeply into what is really going on in Washington, they would discover Billy Long’s campaign promise of no federal earmarks is really quite meaningless, well, that’s not totally true. Long’s campaign promise will actually hurt Southwest Missouri and the infrastructure the Constitution authorizes Congress to use the federal purse for.

The actual truth is earmarks don’t increase the federal budget one dime. However, they have become meaningless rhetoric to rally the angry voters starting with John McCain’s gutless, mismanaged, and uninspiring presidential campaign and now Billy Long believes fighting earmarks is his way to Washington. Billy Long’s earmark pledge shows a dangerous side of Billy Long that appears out of touch with the realities and the threat to the American way of life currently plaguing Washington DC.

Once again we see how ill-prepared Billy Long is to become a Congressman. He uses the same approach we often see from Democrats when it comes to issues. Put your finger in the air and see which way the wind blows. Because many Americans associate earmarks as bad without realizing this one main truth, Long believes he has something that will give his campaign traction as long as people remain ignorant to the truth that earmarking doesn’t increase the federal budget by one dime. The money Southwest Missouri received through Roy Blunt’s earmarks was already approved by Congress to be spent. Mr. Blunt made sure it went to Southwest Missouri rather than other places like Boring, Oregon; Hell, Michigan; Embarrass, Minnesota; Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania; Blue Ball, Pennsylvania; or Camel Hump, Wyoming.

Addressing earmarks is like trying to pop a pimple on your butt that has no head. Practically nothing happens, while it continues to grow bigger and bigger putting more pressure and discomfort to those who must endure the growing problem.

Here’s Mr. Long’s view, taken from his Web site, of the fiscal work ahead of him in Washington. Through posting a lot of paragraphs from a lot of writers from other publications about pork (earmarks) and posting two paragraphs himself, Mr. Long is clearly out of touch with the real problems that are increasing our national debt at a pace America cannot sustain.

With an increasing national debt and growing federal budget deficits, southwest Missouri needs someone in office who will not engage in the pork barrel politics that have been allowed to run Washington. In ten years, the national debt is projected to be $16 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This puts a tremendous debt on every American—more than $37,000 per person at the current level and projected to be much more in the future. This is a debt that will burden future generations if we do not stop the destructive economic policies that have been allowed to run amok in Washington.

Our nation cannot afford to stay on this destructive path. The government cannot keep committing future taxpayers to pay for today’s frivolous projects, political patronage, and pork barrel spending. As the only businessperson running, Billy knows how hard it can be to meet payroll and make ends meet, and he will fight to reign in harmful spending and heavy taxes that threaten the viability of families and small businesses. Billy is completely opposed to all earmarks and other frivolous uses of taxpayer money. He knows that runaway spending will lead to higher inflation, which will cause the recession to linger even longer.

In Mr. Long’s two generic paragraphs, he uses pathos-based words that anger voters, but what is he really saying? He’s going to Washington to cut the pork. Yada yada (two words I picked up from Mr. Long this week as he downplayed the seriousness of the state’ tornado drills).

Let’s be real here. Mr. Long is not only the stereotypical politician courting high-profile, big donors, handing out bumper stickers, and kissing babies, he is also a cowardly politician. Mr. Long’s two paragraphs do nothing to address the real problems in Washington DC. If you really think cutting earmarks in this country is going to save it from increasing debt and higher taxes, you have no business in Washington. Now I have already hit Mr. Long on the fact that some earmarks are Constitutional, and I know many people are going to enjoy the new improvements to US65 when they are done with construction, including Billy Long who lives about a mile away from the new James River Expressway/Schoolcraft Freeway intersection.

>From Mr. Long’s views, it’s these frivolous pork barrel projects that are ruining our country. I really wish it was that easy.

What concerns me about Mr. Long’s two paragraphs is he doesn’t have the sense to realize that big government, added bureaucracies and larger bureaucracies (almost always unconstitutional upon their formation), service union pensions from these bureaucracies, all the costs to run these bureaucracies, and the programs they provide that allow more people to suck from the federal teat are the real problem. Mr. Long is caught up in the distraction of why government doesn’t work instead of looking into the real reasons government is broken.

Recently, Ron Paul (R-TX) addressed Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his fellow Congressmen. Ron Paul confirms Billy Long’s earmark pledge is meaningless rhetoric.

Contrary to popular belief, adding earmarks to a bill does not increase federal spending by even one penny. Spending levels for the appropriation bills are set before Congress adds a single earmark to a bill. The question of whether or not the way the money is spent is determined by earmarks or by another means does not affect the total amount of spending.

Since reforming, limiting, or even eliminating earmarks does nothing to reduce federal spending, I have regarded the battle over earmarks as a distraction from the real issue – the need to reduce the size of government. Recently, opponents of earmarks have embraced an approach to earmark reform that undermines the constitutional separation of powers by encouraging the president to issue an executive order authorizing federal agencies to disregard congressional earmarks placed in committee reports.

If Billy Long’s crusade to Washington is about fighting earmarks because he believes it makes him electable, he will, as predicted previously, be destroyed in Washington. Long’s earmark pledge would indeed provide Obama with more power through executive orders. The bottom line is if Mr. Long wanted to end the status quo in Washington, his congressional fiscal and budget policies would look past earmarks and start looking at real solutions like a few of his opponents have that believe ending these federal bureaucracies is a viable solution. (These same bureaucracies are putting more restrictions on our freedoms as well.) First off, many of them like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education are unconstitutional. These programs should be accomplished on the state level. What is right for California, isn’t right for Southwest Missouri.

Furthermore, they are putting this country in far greater danger contributing to our increasing national debt while infringing on states’ rights. That’s why there is no merit in Billy Long’s earmark pledge. He is misguided on the issue and once again shows his lack of true understanding of what takes place in Washington DC. We need a federal budget slasher not a cookie-cutter, one size fits all, no-earmark pledger.

Originally posted at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom © Clay Bowler

Related Video Search

Tags: billy long, bureaucracies, debt, earmarks, election 2010, federal budget, Politics, pork barrel, Society

Category: Government